ight, no one takes him. So the
Red Dog man leaves his bluff a-hangin' an' goes into the dance-hall,
a-givin' of it out cold an' clammy he meditates libatin'.

"'All promenade to the bar,' yells the Red Dog man as he goes in. 'I'm
a wolf, an' it's my night to howl. Don't 'rouse me, barkeep, with the
sight of merely one bottle; set 'em all up. I'm some fastidious about
my fire-water an' likes a chance to select.'

"Well, we-alls takes our inspiration, an' the Red Dog man tucks his
onder his belt an' then turns round to Enright.

"'I takes it you're the old he-coon of this yere outfit?' says the Red
Dog man, soopercilious-like.

"'Which, if I ain't,' says Enright, 'it's plenty safe as a play to let
your wisdom flow this a-way till the he-coon gets yere.'

"'If thar's anythin',' says the Red Dog man, 'I turns from sick, it's
voylence an' deevastation. But I hears sech complaints constant of
this yere camp of Wolfville, I takes my first idle day to ride over an'
line things up. Now yere I be, an' while I regrets it, I finds
you-alls is a lawless, onregenerate set, a heap sight worse than
roomer. I now takes the notion--for I sees no other trail--that by
next drink time I climbs into the saddle, throws my rope 'round this
den of sin, an' removes it from the map.'

"'Nacherally,' says Enright, some sarcastic, 'in makin' them schemes
you ain't lookin' for no trouble whatever with a band of tarrapins like
us.'

"'None whatever,' says the Red Dog man, mighty confident. 'In thirty
minutes I distributes this yere hamlet 'round in the landscape same as
them Greasers; which feat becomin' hist'ry, I then canters back to Red
Dog.'

"'Well,' says Enright, 'it's plenty p'lite to let us know what's comin'
this a-way.'

"'Oh! I ain't tellin' you none,' says the Red Dog man, 'I simply lets
fly this hint, so any of you-alls as has got bric-a-brac he values
speshul, he takes warnin' some an' packs it off all safe.'

"It's about then when Cherokee Hall, who's lookin' on, shoulders in
between Enright an' the Red Dog man, mighty positive. Cherokee is a
heap sot in his idees, an' I sees right off he's took a notion ag'in
the Red Dog man.

"'As you've got a lot of work cut out,' says Cherokee, eyein' the Red
Dog man malignant, 's'pose we tips the canteen ag'in.'

"'I shorely goes you,' says the Red Dog man. 'I drinks with friend,
an' I drinks with foe; with the pard of my bosom an' the shudderin'
victim of my wrath all s